Subscriber television systems typically employ a receiver, or settop terminal, or digital subscriber communication terminal (DSCT), at each customer premises to receive and decode the programming transmitted to the user from a central location (commonly referred to in the industry as the “headend”) via a wired infrastructure such as cable or wireless network. The digital subscriber communication terminal typically includes a receiver, decoder, and processing circuitry. The digital subscriber communication terminal is capable of receiving the programming information via the network and transforming the received signal to a format that can be presented to the viewer via a television display.
Today, subscriber television systems frequently transmit high quality digital content to DSCTs of their subscribers. Many subscribers have digital equipment such as personal computers that can be used to copy, virtually error free, digital content. In order to protect the property rights of owners of digital content, it is desirable to have a way to prevent uncontrolled copying of digital content received at the DSCTs.